The gallery owner said: “I think the summer here has been busy in Caernarfon and I expect that is true for the whole of North Wales.

“The one thing we have seen here is plenty of footfall and I think we have benefited from more people holidaying in the UK instead of going abroad

“I expect these figures relate more to [businesses in] south and west Wales, which according to our reps have been struggling.”

But she went on to strike a note of caution.

“What would make matters worse was if there were more public sector job losses. In Caernarfon the council will be closing some offices and relocating the staff and that will have an impact across the town.”

Stephen Robertson, BRC director general, said: “In July all types of shopping locations saw reduced footfall year-on-year and that was before the effect of this month’s disturbances in England. Fewer people are shopping because households are facing high inflation, low wage growth and uncertainty about future job prospects. But that’s slightly offset by hard-up customers spreading their spending over more, but less costly, shopping trips.

“For the quarter, the 1% drop in shopper numbers compared with this time last year is not great but is actually an improvement on the 1.3% fall over the twelve months before that.”

He said the figures showed “stark differences” across the UK.

“Generally, the parts of the UK where the public sector is a bigger proportion of the economy are the ones where customer spending is most likely to be hit by worries about job prospects and cuts, meaning people are shopping less and more retail businesses are failing.